Scutelleridae

I've been trying to find a picture of my recent scutellerid on the internet and the only one I could find was another unidentified Shield-backed Bug in Bugguide from Florida. Armed with this seemingly identical picture, I looked for a Scutelleridae key, and I found one of the Scutelleridae of Florida. I was in luck, the unknown from Florida immediately keyed out to Acantholomidea denticulata, and after a quick search in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, I found that this species occurs throughout eastern N.A. I later found an older reference called Heteroptera or True Bugs of Eastern North America (W.S. Blatchley, 1926) and decided to use this along with recent names of scutellerids to key out some of the unknowns in the guide. These are the identifications I came to, and I'm relatively positive they are correct, although any confirmation from an expert would be appreciated.

Image 37329 - Orsilochides guttata (as Chelysoma guttatum in the text)
Image 54701 - Orsilochides guttata
Image 73482 - Orsilochides guttata
Image 94009 - Orsilochides guttata
Image 27260 - Eurygaster sp. (Outdated due to addition of several species, and the species described doesn't match)
Image 75758 - Tetyra bipunctata
Image 4875 - Acantholomidea denticulata (as Acantholoma denticulata in text)
Image 94759 - Acantholomidea denticulata
Image 9917 - Homaemus aenifrons (lack of light side margins and yellow pubescence on the head)
Image 85388 - Homaemus bijugis (presence of yellow pubescence, lack of black spots on side margins of abdomen)
Image 41711 - Homaemus parvulus (presence of yellow pubescence, presence of black spots on side margins of abdomen)
Image 70895 - Homaemus parvulus
Image 78414 - Homaemus parvulus

Also, Image 17222 seemed to stand out a bit from the rest, so I looked in the above reference and found a picture of Podops dubius that resembled it. Listed under the family Podopidae, a family I didn't at all recognize, I dug a little further and keyed it out to Podops cinctipes, now known as Amaurochrous cinctipes. I'm not exactly sure what reference we're using when figuring out the phylogeny of Heteropterans anymore, but both Nomina Insecta Nearctica and ITIS list this in Pentatomidae rather than Scutelleridae.

Guide pages will need to be made for Homaemus aenifrons, Homaemus bijugis, Homaemus parvulus, Tetyra bipunctata, Acantholomidea denticulata, and Amaurochrous cinctipes.

Contributed by Michael Garcia on 25 February, 2007 - 1:08am
Last updated 27 February, 2007 - 12:58pm

All but one page erected and species moved

The one I hestitated to touch is the Acantholomidea/Camirus denticulata/porosus. I have also tried to retrieve information about them, but the results did not allow for decision. Compare here:

… Boris Büche, 3 May, 2007 - 7:23am

pages have been made...

for Orsilochides guttata, Tetyra bipunctata, and Homaemus aenifrons so far. Regarding Eurygaster species, I don't know what you mean by "Outdated due to addition of several species, and the species described doesn't match".

In a PDF key to Florida species of Scutelleridae here, the photo you mentioned as the "unknown from Florida" keys out to Acantholomidea porosa (Germar), not A. denticulata (Stal). There's no denticulata species in the Florida key, so I assume that it doesn't occur in Florida. The key describes A. porosa as "Pronotum with a distinct transverse impression, small black elongate species" which fits Tony DiTerlizzi's photo from Florida and your photo from South Dakota.

I wonder whether Camirus porosus (Germar), listed at nearctica.com, is a synonym of Acantholomidea porosa. In a PDF doc here, C. porosus is reported from British Columbia, California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Mexico to Colombia. The only records of A. denticulata I could find were from Minnesota, Illinois, North Carolina, and a historical record from Virginia, and none of the sites gave a description of the species.

I don't know how (or whether) photos of porosus are distinguishable from denticulata, and I don't know whether they should be placed in separate genera or both in Acantholomidea. Someone else will have to help here.

… Robin McLeod, 1 March, 2007 - 7:57pm

Sorry, I didn't explain things very clearly...

When I mentioned the outdatedness of the Eurygaster, I meant in the text that I was using, Heteroptera or True Bugs of Eastern North America, W.S. Blatchley, 1926. It only lists one species, and there have been many added since its publish date. As for the Acantholomidea, I wrote in the wrong species from the Florida key, I apologize. Haven't had too much sleep lately :). I think that Camirus porosus is most likely a synonym for A. porosa, but I've seen both used, though never both on the same site. I looked at an article on A. denticulata in The Annals of The American Entomological Society, and the description seemed to fit my specimen perfectly, along with the location, so I'm thinking maybe mine is A. denticulata, and the one from Florida is A./C. porosa? Maybe not...any thoughts would be appreciated.

… Michael Garcia, 2 March, 2007 - 12:06am

Okay, thanks

I searched some more and found that Camirus porosus and Acantholomidea porosa are definitely the same species, described in 1839 by Germar. For future reference, I added a link to this discussion under Tony D.'s photo.

… Robin McLeod, 2 March, 2007 - 7:12pm

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